Bulgaria. New legislation favours Orthodox Church

The minority churches in Bulgaria are deploring the restrictions contained in a new law, which came into force at the beginning of the year. This law, which is heavily prejudiced in favour of the Orthodox Church, authorises tribunals to suspend the activities of a church for up to six months, to cancel its registration and ban its publications. The law stipulates that the Orthodox Church is “the traditional Church” of the country and quotes a law of the church describing Orthodoxy as “the only true catholic, apostolic church dating back to the time of Christ.” It should be noted that in this country the Orthodox represent 83.6% of its 7.9 million inhabitants, according to a study by the National Institute of Statistics in 2001; the Muslims are 12.1%, while Protestants and Catholics together account for 2.5%.